What is the goal each time you are about to go to bed? You want to get a good night’s sleep. That is obvious. However, you also want to get a good night’s sleep without being in pain. And if you are in pain, you cannot get a good night’s sleep anyway because you are so uncomfortable which leads to you tossing and turning throughout the hours of the night. It does not seem to matter that you get into a position that you like that would be on your side. You still are in pain and you are finding that if you sleep on your side, you are having plenty of shoulder pain. Why is that?
If You Are Sleeping In The Wrong Position That Can Cause Shoulder Blade Pain
You do know how your posture affects you during your waking hours. If you sit for eight hours a day at your desk, you likely slump which can cause back pain and poor posture. It is no different from when you sleep. If you sleep on the side, you may end up experiencing plenty of shoulder blade pain. However, that is a problem if your preference is to sleep on your side even though it causes you shoulder blade pain.
If you sleep on your side, you are placing extra strain on your shoulder muscles. That results in stiffness and soreness, and in addition to that, you are putting stress on the rotator cuff which can cause tearing. As a result, if you sleep in an uncomfortable position on your side, you can end up with shoulder impingement syndrome or tendonitis which is caused by your bones pressing up against your tendons.
What Is Shoulder Tendonitis?
Shoulder tendonitis is characterized by the inflammation of your biceps tendon and your rotator cuff as that consists of your shoulder’s muscles and tendons. That is the part that connects your shoulder blade to your arm, and when you sleep on your side, it is not hard to see how pressure can cause this to happen. If you have nerve damage, tissue injury, or arthritis, then that can also cause tendonitis.
However, your sleeping position can cause that as you know. Let’s now talk about the solutions. Does that entail never sleeping on your side again? Even though sleeping on your back or stomach may help reduce that risk, there are also other problems you can face if you sleep on your back or stomach. Therefore, you do not have to stop sleeping on your side if it is quite comfortable for you despite it causing you shoulder pain.
However, there are methods to help keep your shoulder muscles flexible to the point that if you sleep on your side, it will not make a significant difference.
What Is A Home Treatment For Shoulder Tendonitis?
As long as the pain in your shoulder is not severe to the point you need the help of a chiropractor, there are solutions that you can find through home treatments. If you do some easy stretches daily for five minutes, that can help as you can squeeze your shoulder blades. You can roll your shoulder blades backward or down, or bring your ear to your shoulders around ten times.
You can also put an ice pack on your shoulder during the day to help reduce the inflammation. If you can train yourself to sleep on your back or on the other side where it does not cause shoulder pain, that would be a bonus. However, if you can utilize these tactics during the day, then you can keep sleeping on the side that you prefer without it causing further problems.
